Physostigma venenosum

Homoeopathic medicine

1. (calabar bean ) Dr. Nikunj U. Gamit Physostigma venenosum

2. Calabar Bean. Chop Nut. Known among the negroes of Western Africa as the Ordeal Bean of Calabar. The plant is a perennial which grows near the mouths of the Niger and the Old Calabar river on the Gulf of Guinea.

3. Where is the proving of physostigma found? In the transactions of the American Institute of Homoeopathy for 1874 . What is physostigma ? It is the Calabar bean , and the tincture is made from the pulverized bean in the same manner as the Nux vomica or Ignatia tincture is made. The bean is pulverized, weighed, covered with five parts by weight of alcohol, and allowed to remain eight days in a well- stoppered bottle, at the ordinary temperature, in a dark, cool place, being shaken twice a day. The tincture is then poured off, strained and filtered.

4. What is its alkaloid and its principal use? Eserin or Physostigmin . It produces a specific contraction of the pupil. Dose, 1-60 of a grain in solution, applied locally. What is its general action? It irritates the fibres of the third nerve, producing contraction of the pupil and spasm of accommodation. It acts powerfully on the spinal cord, producing motor paralysis.

5. In what diseases do we sometimes find it indicated? Spinal irritation, tetanus and trismus or lockjaw, but its use in diseases of the eye such as spasm of the ciliary muscle, myopia, etc., is most important. Post-diphtheritic paralysis.

6. Spinal Motor Nerves. Eyes. Muscles. Left Side. Region

7. Astigmatism. (defect in eyes or in a lens - deviation of curvature of lens) Blepharospasm. (involuntary tight closure of the eye lids) Chorea. Ciliary spasm. Climacteric. Constipation. Coccygodynia . (pain originate from coccyx) Dentition. Diarrhoea. Dyspepsia. Epilepsy. Clinical

8. Eyes, affections of; injuries of; strain of. General paralysis. Glaucoma. Haemorrhoids. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hemiplegia (left). Herpes, preputialis . Hiccough. Hysteria. ( Uncontrolable emotions) Iris, prolapsed. Leucorrhoea. Locomotor ataxy .

9. Myopia. Navel, inflammation of. Paralysis, local; agitans ; spinal. ( Parkinsons disease) Paraplegia. Progressive muscular atrophy. Prostration; muscular. Sleeplessness. Spinal irritation. Spinal sclerosis. Stiff neck. Tetanus. Throat, sore; fish-bone sensation. Water, effects of. Wounds.

10. Emotions. Grief. Bathing. Injuries. Blows. Causation

11. Motor nerves through spinal cord are affected by this remedy; causing fluttering tremors in the muscles; they do not respond to the will and/or draw into knots; even the intestines are seen twisted in knots. This remedy and its active principle, Eserine , form a valuable addition to Materia Medica. Stimulates heart, raises blood pressure, and increases peristalsis. Generalities

12. Causes contraction of the pupil and of the ciliary muscles. Induces a condition of short-sightedness. Spinal irritation, loss of motility, prostration, with very sensitive vertebrae Fibrillary tremors. Rigidity of muscles; paralysis. Depresses the motor and reflex activity of the cord and causes loss of sensibility to pain, muscular weakness, followed by complete paralysis, although muscular contractility is not impaired.

13. Paralysis and tremors, chorea. Meningeal irritation, with rigidity of muscles. Tetanus and trismus . Poliomyelitis anterior. Eserine is used locally to produce contraction of pupil.

14. This case was cured : Great muscular prostration with continual inclination to sigh; leucorrhoea agg. by exercising during the day, especially 4 p.m. ; sighing agg. when leucorrhoea is agg.; dread of cold water. This dread of cold water is a grand keynote of Physo . One of the provers (a water drinker) developed a perfect disgust for cold water and cold drinks; and though used to a cold morning plunge, was obliged to omit it on account of his horror. Other provers felt uncomfortable after bathing, and had great reluctance to their bath. Characteristics

15. Weakness was felt on change of weather, and on cold, bracing days. A paralytic state of mind and body from grief has been cured with Physo . Sleeplessness of a peculiar kind occurs in Physo . Nash cured with Physo . 12 and 30 persistent sleeplessness in a patient who had been in an insane asylum, and feared she would have to go again. Her symptom was : "If she chanced to get a nap she awoke suddenly as if in a fright, and felt no >> from what she had slept."

16. Peculiar sensations are : As if stomach were full. As if she must lose her mind. As if a ball were coming up throat. Lower limbs as if asleep. Back as if paralysed. Tongue as if burnt (left margin); as if swollen and paralysed. Sensations of contraction and tension. Wavering in brain. Weak feeling in stomach.

17. H. L. Chase, one of the provers , had a "very severe pain in the right popliteal space," and he afterwards cured a patient who came to him with pain in the same region two years later. (Allen gives the symptom as in the left popliteal space.) The symptoms are agg. by pressure (of finger between vertebrae causing wincing); by falls and blows. agg. Motion; descending stairs (wavering in brain). agg. Walking; stepping; jar of misstep.

18. >> Lying supine. agg. Lying left side; >> lying on right side. agg. 4 p.m. agg. Night (headache unbearable). If pain began at any hour it always continued till 12 o'clock following, either noon or midnight. agg. Cold water; perfect horror of cold drink; cold bath. agg. From bathing; from change in weather; on bracing days. agg. In church. >> In cool open air. agg. On waking. >> Closing eyes. >> By sleep (hiccough). >> Warmth to feet; sinapisms to abdomen.

19. Uncommon mental activity. Foolish actions, said it made him crazy. Exhilarated in morning, gloomy towards noon. Nothing was right, too many things in room; continually counting them. Irritable. Nervous, cannot endure pain. Exhaustion, cannot remember anything. Disinclined to work. Difficult thinking; cannot concentrate the mind. Mind

20. Constant pain on top; vertigo, with constrictive feeling of head. Pain over orbits; cannot bear to raise eyelids. Cerebro -spinal meningitis; general tetanic rigidity. Spastic conditions of the face-muscles. Darting pain in forehead, agg. motion, and in temples. Sharp pain in supra-orbital region, running off towards nose. Head

21. Pain : over right eye, in morning on waking, by noon pain in whole cerebrum, fulness of blood-vessels of brain, and contracted feeling in forehead, which extended to eyelids, causing an effort to open or close them; in left side at 10 a.m. , with heat in abdomen and nausea, the pain is heavy at 11, pain over whole head from 4 till 10 p.m. , with nausea and general sweat, headache next day with lame, bruised feeling in region of kidneys.

22. Pain in temples; showing from right temple to 2nd bicuspid. In evening headache, agg. forehead and temples. One-sided headache with fear of opening eyes lest it should agg. the pain. Inability to stop thinking with headache.

23. Sensation of rush of blood to frontal and temporal regions. Sharp, shooting pains in temples. Throbbing of temporal and carotid arteries; heart beats felt in head on lying down. Intense, painful pressure in vertex and both temples, the pressure in vertex extending over to occiput .

24. Eyes inflamed, first right, then left; sclerotic dry, red, and swollen; eyeballs pain and smart; lids feel sore. Eyes bloodshot all the forenoon, with burning in them. Pain on attempting to use binocular vision, as in reading, so that one eye must be closed, >> by a weak concave glass. Pressure; with muscae volitantes (floating in vitreous humour), dark and light long worms or snakes, also tremulous vision. Eyes

25. Bright marks when looking at an object; dark yellowish spots covering one or two letters when reading. Sharp, shooting pains, and drawing, twisting sensation in eyes. Eyes sore and painful when moved from side to side. Pain deep in, over top of eyeball, running up from inner canthus to right frontal eminence, then down obliquely outward into temple. Sharp stitches in right eyeball, >> by motion in open air.

26. Eyes convulsed. Sight blurred, hazy, or misty, film over eyes; objects mixed; after which dull pain over the eyes and between the eyes. Aching in posterior part of orbit, extending back into the brain; agg. on reading, causing nausea. Lids (esp. left) heavy; cannot bear to raise them; twitching of lids (upper, agg. left).

27. Contracted sensation in lids with difficulty in opening them and lachrymation when wide open, difficulty in keeping left eye open. Lids immovable. Tight feeling in ciliary region as if something were creeping about in it, with sharp pain, agg. reading. Pupils dilated.

28. Pupils contracted when asleep, dilated when aroused. Disturbed accommodation : approximation of far point (myopia) and also of near point. Vision abnormally acute; double; dim and indistinct; blurred, hazy, misty. (Lens dislocated by blow.)

29. Sharp, shooting pains in the ears. Shooting in left ear; in right. Pain in right ear when writing. Hammering in right in evening, with feeling in external ear as from a hot wind. Painful pressure on tympani. Discomfort in right, with inclination to bore in with finger; after removal of wax some pain; with eructation a sudden pain from throat along Eustachian tube to middle ear. Ear

30. Crawling in left ear. Fulness . Stopped feeling. Partial deafness of right. Sensitive to every sound. Singing or tuning like escaping steam, at night after lying down. Hissing, buzzing, ringing in the ears.

31. Fluent coryza ; burning and tingling of nostrils; nose stuffed and hot. Fever-blisters around nostrils. Twitchings in nose and involuntary expansion of nostrils. Small boil inside right nostril. Epistaxis while at supper. Smarting at end of nose, it feels as if burnt by hot liquid. Tension in skin of nose and forehead. Nose

32. Face pale; flushings of the face; heat. Neuralgic pain in right side of face. Sensation of cramps or spasms in face extending to neck; with numbness of left hand. Sensation of contraction of left side of face, with numbness. Severe pain in right upper jaw like toothache (though all teeth on that side had been extracted). Numbness of lips. Face

33. Tongue feels sore on tip. Feeling as if a ball came up throat. Dentition : nervous children with vacillating pupils who have trouble when nursing or taking food; pain in stomach as soon as they begin, but going off if they continue to nurse. Tongue coated, more heavily at root. Mouth

34. Numbness and tingling of tongue and lips, with constant desire to moisten them. Bad taste in mouth. Profuse salivation; thick, leathery saliva. Difficult speech. Power of speech retained long after inability to swallow.

35. Strong heart-pulsation felt in throat. Sore throat, painful swallowing. Tonsils and soft palate dark red. Burning, scraping, raw feeling in throat. Tonsils enlarged; swollen, elongated uvula. Small ulcers, with yellow centres in pharynx. Throat

36. Feeling as of a fish-bone in throat; swallowing saliva very painful. Constriction of throat and dysphagia . Pain extending from throat to left ear when swallowing. Feeling as if a ball were coming up in throat. Submaxillary gland tender and tumefied .

37. Great pain immediately after eating. Sensitive to pressure in epigastric region. Pain extends into chest and down arms. Gastralgia; chronic constipation. Hunger but can find nothing to satisfy it; food has a flat taste. Stomach

38. No appetite, disgust for food, tobacco, and coffee; and esp. for cold drinks. Tasteless eructations . In stomach : prickling, sharp pains; darting pains, with paralysed feeling of left side; heaviness and weight, as if undigested food were lying there; hard pain; griping; emptiness and weakness; sensation of nervousness and trembling. Soreness in region of stomach.

39. Lancinating pains in hypochondria. Hard, sore pain in splenic region; descending to groin and across hypogastrium , agg. by motion. Soreness and pain at navel, which was found much inflamed. Severe pain in umbilical region. Pain and soreness in umbilical region. Stitches in left side of abdomen. Abdomen

40. Much rumbling and distension in abdomen, with discharge of large quantities of flatus. Dull pain in transverse and descending colon. Colicky pains, with feeling as if diarrhoea would occur. Shooting pains in left iliac region and down thigh. Sharp, cutting pains in lower part of abdomen. Dull pains in groins.

41. Stools : copious; soft, thin; watery; yellowish; bilious; part natural, part black like tar; lumpy, mixed with watery discharge; dark and offensive. Constipation; from atony . Sphincter ani swollen and rigid; evacuation painful; rectum protruding, swollen and very sensitive. Tenesmus and burning, with diarrhoea; also tenesmus of bladder. Stool irregular and loose, anus sore and inclined to protrude; piles (absent for three years) return. Severe piles following childbirth. Stool and anus

42. Bruised, sore feeling in region of kidneys. Bladder feels distended. Frequent desire to urinate, often ineffectual. Frequent and copious urination. Urine : yellow; high coloured; strong-smelling; clear; muddy; pale and copious. Urinary organs

43. Frequent erections with but slight desire. Two emissions without dreams or excitement. Strong-smelling sweat about genitals, prepuce tender and swollen, many small vesicles on glans with burning itching. Male sexual organs

44. Irregular menstruation, with palpitation. Congestion of eyes. Rigid muscles. Leucorrhoea; agg. exercising during day, esp. about 4 p.m. ; with inclination to sight; sighing agg. when leucorrhoea is worse; dread of cold water. Female

45. Cough from tickling in throat. Slight constant inclination to cough from filling lungs. Laboured, sighing respiration; yawning. Respiratory organs

46. Feeble pulse; palpitation; spasmodic action, with feeling pulsation through the whole body. Beats of heart distinctly perceptible in chest and head. Fluttering of heart felt in throat. Fatty degeneration. Heart

47. Limbs feel weary, as after great fatigue. Numbness in all the limbs; and paralytic feeling. Neuralgic pains in the limbs. Stiffness or bruised feeling in the joints. Staggering gait. Cold extremities. Extremities

48. Upper limbs Wrists feel weak; dull aching pain in them. Sharp, shooting pain in left shoulder. Itching of left palm. Paroxysms of burning in palms. Hands feel cold, then hot and red. Pain in right deltoid >> only by violent motion. Numbness in left arm. Sharp pain in left, then right arm.

49. Lower limbs Unsteadiness from knee downward when walking, esp. with eyes shut. Dragging pain in left hip towards back. Stiffness in hip and knee. Cramp-like pain in left (and right) popliteal space. Sensation of a drawing cord behind leg and knee, impeding walking. Gnawing in left tibia. Legs feel asleep. Numbness in left foot.

50. Irresistible desire to sleep; soporific sleep. Restless sleep with dreams. During sleep mind so active was unaware he had been asleep. Falls asleep frequently, but awakes suddenly without relief; following night scarcely closed eyes in sleep; thoughts very active; an idea once started kept on with unusual persistence. Sleep

51. Creeping, chilly sensation in back; yawning; every movement and draught shuddering. Hands and feet cold. Cold, clammy skin. Heat in head and face; flushed and hot. Heat in face and down back with chilliness of legs. Dry burning in hands. Fever

52. Perspires very easily. Cold sweat in drops over whole body. Strong-smelling sweat around genitals. Copious sweat all over body.

53. Change of temperature. Eyestrain. Bathing. Heat and cold. Descending. Motion. Stepping. Jar, misstep. Worse

54. Lying on abdomen or with head low. Exerting the will. Closing eyes. Sleep. Better

55. Antidotes : Atropinum and Chloratum hydratum . Camphor suspends the symptoms temporarily. Compatible : Amyl nitr., Conium, Gelsem. Compare : In eye diseases : Agaricus, Caustic., Chamom., Conium, Curare. In tetanus, Nux vom. Relations

56. A drug for myopia (Ruta., Con., Phos., Puls.). Idiopathic or traumatic tetanus; brought on or worse by slightest breath of air from a person passing. (Hyper., Lyc.). Locomotor ataxia. (Alum., Con., Gels., Nux vom., Phos.). Uncommon mental activity. (Can. i., Coff., Phos.). Floating black spots before eyes (Chin., Cocc., Nat. mur., Phos., Sep., Sil., Sulph.). Profuse Lachrymation (Euphr., Merc.). Gastralgia, worse after eating (Calc. phos., Mag. phos., Nux vom.). Jerking limbs. (Bell., Cupr., Hyosc.).

57. Thank you...